BALTIMORE – More than 400
student-athletes, faculty, staff and family members were in
attendance on Monday, May 6 at the RAC Arena as UMBC honored its
student-athletes for another successful year both on the playing
surface and in the classroom. Junior Pete Caringi
III (Perry Hall, Md./Calvert Hall) joined second-year
honorees, sophomore Mercedes Jackson(Huntingtown,
Md./Huntingtown) and junior Mohamed Hussein (Cairo,
Egypt/Victory College), as the Retrievers’ Most Outstanding
Athletes for the 2012-13 academic year, an honor that was renamed
the Dr. Charles R. Brown Outstanding Athlete Award to recognize the
Athletic Director, who will retire in June, for his 24 years of
dedication to the department and school.

Caringi III authored a breakthrough season
for the men’s soccer program, and was the offensive force
that propelled the team to the second round of the NCAA Tournament,
earning several post-season honors. He was cited as the America
East Striker of the Year, the ECAC Offensive Player of the Year and
he was selected to National College Soccer Coaches’
Association All-Northeast Region Second Team.

An America East First Team selection and the league’s
Fans’ Choice Player of the Year, he scored 14 goals and
recorded 32 points to place 13th and 15th respectively in the
country. The local Calvert Hall product also tied a school
single-game record by scoring four goals in a resounding victory
over league foe Hartford.

Jackson pushed past her record-setting
freshman campaign and continued to make history both inside and
outside, as she garnered her second consecutive Athlete of the Year
recognition. Already the school-record holder in the 60-meter and
200-meter dash events indoors from last year, Jackson ran past both
marks during the 2012-13 indoor track season, including a
personal-best time of 7.34 in the 60-meter event to become just the
fourth UMBC track athlete ever to advance to the NCAA
Championships. In Fayetteville, Arkansas, she placed 13th and
earned a spot on the All-America Second Team.

Outside, the sophomore has continued her bristling pace, winning
the 100m and 200m dash events in record-breaking time at the
America East Outdoor Championships. Her victory in the 100-meter
race broke an eight-year old conference record, while her win the
200-meter snapped her own conference and school-record times. For
her efforts, she was named the Most Outstanding Female Track
Performer.

A year after breaking onto the scene at UMBC with three
individual gold medals at the 2012 America East
Championships, Hussein, also a back-to-back
honoree of Most Outstanding Athlete recognition, pushed even
further this season, leading the Retrievers to just their
second-ever undefeated dual meet season. In Orono, Maine, he once
again won three individual events and was named the Most
Outstanding Male Swimmer for the second-straight year, as he helped
guide the Retrievers back to the top of the conference with a
meet-record 1,075 total points at the America East Championships in
Maine.

Following the America East meet, the junior claimed Top Male
Swimmer accolades at the ECAC Championships and became just the
third Retriever in program history, and first male swimmer, to make
the cut for the NCAA Championships. In Indianapolis, against a
national field, he set personal-records in the 200-yard individual
medley, 200-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard backstroke, breaking
his own school record with each swim.

Jones has been the men’s lacrosse
team’s offensive leader for the past three seasons. He has
earned three all-conference honors, including first team
recognition in 2012, when he finished eighth in the nation in goals
scored per game. Earlier this season, he became the 30th player in
school history to record 100 points and currently stands 20th with
117 career points. Jones has served as team captain of the
Retrievers for the past two season and earned all-tournament honors
at the 2013 America East Men’s Lacrosse Championships.

Deller has won the shot put all eight
times at the America East Championships, earning a gold medal in
the event indoors and outdoors, all four years of her career. In
addition, she has won the weight throw at the indoor meet to be
named the Most Outstanding Female Field Athlete each of the last
two years. Last year, she added the discus championship to her
career haul and this season at the conference championships at
Binghamton, she repeated in the discus to bring her career haul to
12 America East titles.

Fahey received conference honors all four
season with the Retrievers, including three straight selections to
the America East All-Conference First Team. Additionally, she has
earned national recognition on the IWLCA Mid-Atlantic Region Second
Team, as well as garnering a spot on
thewomenslacrosse.com All-Rookie Squad. The four-year
letterwinner eclipsed the century mark for draw controls with 115
and ground balls with 105 for her career this season, in addition
to recording her first career point with an assist in a 15-12
victory against American.

Harris emerged as one of the elite point
guards in the America East in her senior season, setting a new
school record with 109 steals on the season, ranking fifth all-time
in takeaways in a campaign for the America East, and ended the year
ranked third in the country in steals per game. An America East
All-Conference Second Team selection, and a member of the America
East All-Defensive Team, the senior guard tripled her scoring
production from a year ago, averaging 12.4 points per game and
adding 3.8 helpers. The America East Honor Roll member earned a
bachelor’s degree with a major in media and communications
studies in May 2012 and has posted a 4.0 GPA since starting her
master’s program in early childhood education.

Paddock became just the second UMBC
student-athlete ever to receive a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate
Scholarship, which he is using to pursue a master’s degree in
the management of aging studies. He earned his undergraduate degree
with a 3.92 GPA, completing a double-major in psychology and
sociology and was the 2012 ECAC Division I Scholar-Athlete of the
Year.

A team captain at UMBC, Paddock was named 2012 America East
Defender of the Year and was a repeat selection to the America East
All-Conference First Team. The two-time America East Scholar
Athlete in the sport of men’s soccer, he started all 72 games
that he dressed for in his four-year tenure in Baltimore.

The Leon Upshur Memorial Award, establish in 1994 to honor a
student volunteer that contributes to the mission of the athletic
department in capacities other than participation, was given to
fourth-year student trainer Mariah Cheaves.

Juniors Andrew Smith (Chadds Ford, Pa./Garnet Valley)
of track & field and Klara Pavelkova (Prague, Czech
Republic/Gymnasium Pripotocni) of women’s swimming &
diving wrapped up the major award winners as the recipients of the
Retriever Club Scholarship Award, which will be used for their
senior seasons of competition.

Below is the list of UMBC’s most valuable athletes, most
improved athletes and unsung heroes for each sport, chose by
that’ team’s coaches, as well as the winners of the
third annual Gritty Awards: